Variety of security issues seen stunting cloud growth

At the recently held Dreamforce conference, one security company polled attendees to see what may have kept them from bringing cloud computing deeper into their organizations. While CSO Online columnist Bill Brenner conceded that these types of surveys are usually skewed due to vendor-backing, he believes there is some truth to be found in the data.

As far as this report is concerned, 66 percent said data security keeps them from moving into cloud computing, 56 percent say data privacy keeps them out and 34 percent told the company that compliance issues have stopped them from further implementation of the cloud.

“Stalled or canceled projects are costing companies millions. Many organizations are clearly deploying SaaS or cloud applications first and assessing the risk later,” said the CEO of this cloud security company of the stunted growth from these issues. “These delays and costs can be avoided by bringing in cloud security and privacy experts early during the architecture planning phase of any implementation.”

Security from the start
Instead of simply praying for the best, companies need to have contingency plans in place the proactively address the worst. David Linthicum wrote on InfoWorld that when first moving into the cloud, businesses should select a tactical, high-value problem to easily make their way into the technology. After this, security should be covered up-front and extremely aggressively.

"Most of those in IT won't dig your initial movement to cloud computing, and they'll spout the usual FUD around security and whatnot," Linthicum wrote on the website. "It's best to take this off the table as an install issue by providing a formal plan and technology solution. In this plan, make sure to include security testing and validation, which should put most fears to rest and move you to a much more secure final solution."

Getting rid of these fears should also include bringing in as many employees as possible to review the process, Linthicum wrote on InfoWorld. This will make sure everyone has a stake in the project's success and should work to educate employees about cloud computing as well.